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AN 



ADDRESS, 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



PORTSMOUTH ANTI-SLAVERY SOCIETY, 



ON THE 

FOURTH OF JULY, A. D. 1839, 



BEING THE 63D ANNIVERSARY OF THE INDEPENDENCE OF 
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 



BY HON. WILLIAM CLAGGETT. 



" 'Tis a base 
Abandonment of reason to resign 
Our right of thought." 



PORTSMOUTH, N. H. 

PRINTED BY C. W. BREWSTER. 

1839. 



The author of this Address ought perhaps to render an apology to the Ports- 
mouth Anti Slavery Society, (which passed a vote ©n the 4th July, requesting 
its publication,) for its imperfections. Although he did not at the time 
expect it would meet the public eye, yet in now consenting to its publication, his 
only reason is, that it may perhaps excite some inquiry into the merits of a 
subject in which this community has a deep interest. 






ADDRESS. 



At the Annual Meeting of the Portsmouth Anti-Slavery So- 
ciety, on the 4th day of July, 1839, the following resolutions, viz : 

** Resolved, That the existence of Slavery in our Union is incompatible with 
the genius of our political institutions, and a virtual renunciation of the 
self-evident truths relating to the natural equality and the inalienable rights 
of man, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence — that the rapid 
increase and extension of Slavery, as tending to undermine the foundations 
of virtue and morality, the Christian Religion, and civil liberty, is a subject 
which ought to excite the most fearful apprehensions of the friends of 
freedom. 

*' Resolved, That the abolition of the whole system of Southern Slavery is 
demanded by the dictates of humanity — the immutable principles of jus- 
tice — and the interests and welfare of the whole nation :" 

being under consideration, Mr. Claggett addressed the meet- 
ing, as follows : — 

Mr. President: — When the constitution of the United 
States was adopted, nearly fifty-two years ago, the number of 
persons held in bondage in the thirteen United States, probably 
exceeded six hundred thousands. By the census of 1790, the 
whole number was 697,897. The present number may be esti- 
mated at three millions. We have thus the startling — the appal- 
ling fact, that in the lapse of about half a century, there has 
been an increase of slaves in this land of freedom, this boasted 
" asylum of oppressed humanity," of nearly two millions and an 
half. And now on this sixty-third anniversary of our national 



Independence — this grand national jubilee, while the star-span- 
gled banner of freedom is proudly waving o'er the heads of thir- 
teen millions of freemen, there are, in our glorious Union, three 
millions of our fellow-beings, who, in the language of the Decla- 
ration of Independence, were " created equal" — who were " en- 
dowed by their Creator, with certain unalienable rights ; among 
which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness ;" but who 
are robbed not only of these rights, but all other human rights, 
by the hand of violence and oppression. The infidel may scorn- 
fully affirm, that these humble, degraded slaves do not possess 
the immortal soul ; that they did not originate from the same an- 
cestors as did the white man, but that they sprang from the Mon- 
key tribe. (a) But to arrive at that preposterous conclusion, the 
infidel is under the necessity of rejecting the lights of Christian- 
ity, of Science, and of Philosophy. When the sacred Scriptures 
expressly declare, that God hath made of one blood all the na- 
tions of the earth, we are bound to believe that the declaration 
is true, or else reject the Christian Revelation as a fiction. 

The position being established, that a negro is a man, possess- 
ed of an immortal spirit, the inference is incontrovertible, that 
man cannot hold property in man — that the immortal soul, an 
emanation from Deity, cannot be converted into a chattel. 

The allegation, that a human being can lawfully be converted 
into a slave, is a flat denial of the self-evident truths of the Dec- 
laration of Independence. And were it true, as is often affirm- 
ed, that our Constitution upholds or guaranties slavery, the con- 
stitution being repugnant to the immutable laws of God, could 
have no binding force upon the citizens of this republic. Indeed, 
did the constitution contain such provisions, our most sacred ob- 
ligations would teach us to reject them. But the Constitution 
does not guarantee slavery, nor does the word slave, stain its pa- 
ges. Its provisions, with one exception, are in favor of liberty 
and the rights of man. There are but three allusions in it to the 
subject of slavery, although its framers avoided the use of that 
term. The first is the clause authorizing slave representation in 



5 

Congress. Were the slaves fully represented, and qualified to 
vote, it would seem to be favorable to human rights, rather than 
slavery. The second is the article by which Congress was al- 
lowed to prohibit the slave trade after the year 1808. Surely 
the abolition of that most infamous and horrid traffic in human 
flesh, cannot be construed in favor of slavery. But the third 
clause, requiring that persons (doubtless meaning slaves) held to 
service or labor in one State, escaping into another, shall be de- 
livered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor 
is due, may be construed as favorable to slavery. But the ques- 
tion arises, whether the citizens of the free States are bound to 
violate their State laws and constitutions, and the laws of God, 
by sending back into slavery the poor, degraded, and wronged 
fugitive, who escapes from the hand of his oppressor who had 
robbed him of those inalienable rights given him by Nature and 
Nature's God ? If the master has no property in the slave ; — i( 
he holds him not in virtue of any contract for his services but by 
the exercise of an arbitrary, despotic authority ; and if slavery is 
sinful, upon what principle, we ask, are the citizens of the free 
States bound to aid in the reclamation of the fugitive ? It may 
be answered, that he is converted into a personal chattel by the 
laws of the slave-states, and that the federal constitution requires 
us to surrender up such property, if found within our dominion. 
To this we reply, that the laws cannot make that property, which 
is not property, in and of itself; that a man, or the immortal 
soul, is not a thing, which can be the subject of sale ; that a man 
cannot sell himself into perpetual slavery, because such sale 
would imply a contract ; and that slavery is a negation of all 
contracts, because every contract, to be valid, implies a good 
consideration. A man can have no consideration for surrender- 
ing up his person, and all his rights and services. And human 
laws, thus depriving men of themselves, leaving them nothing but 
the free air of heaven to breathe, are clearly invalid, because 
they violate the laws of God. 

A social compact, whether in the form of civil government or 



a Constitution, thus taking away all rights, although it may be 
entered into by millions, can have no greater claims to our sup;- 
port. 

At this enlightened age of the world, we trust that it is unnec- 
essary to go into an argument to prove that there are certain nat- 
ural rights, among which are those enumerated in the Declara- 
tion of Independence, of which no laws or constitutions can de- 
prive men, not guilty of crime, except by force and violence- 
The poor slave is guiltless — he is unjustly held in bondage — he 
has a right to escape from the hand of his oppressor. American 
citizens have been held in captivity by the Indian tribes. We 
all agree, that they had a perfect right to make their escape. Is 
there any difference, except in the name, between the two ca- 
ses ? The Indian obtained possession of the American citizen 
by force — by conquest ; and had he held him and his offspring 
a century, would the lapse of time legalize the capture ? But 
the Indian fide was the same, as that of the Southern slave-hold- 
er. The slave-holder may starde at this. He may say, that he 
and his ancestors have held this species of property for more 
than a century — that he holds his slaves under a valid title, being 
no less than the last will and testament of his honored Father. 
But how did the Father obtain the title ? From a slave-dealer, 
perhaps for a valuable consideration. How did the slave-dealer 
get his tide ? Either by seizing the negroes on the African 
shores, or else by paying some twelve dollars a head to another 
slave-dealer, who seized them as captives of savage war. The 
original tide then vanishes ; and how can the slave-dealer convey 
a tide, which he never possessed ? How can the slave-holder or 
planter create a title by his last will and testament, which never 
existed ? 

The laws and customs of the slave-states degrade the slave to 
the level cf the grazing horse— the law undertakes to convert him 
into the same kind of property. Suppose that the original horse- 
thief should undertake to give a tide to the stolen horse to an ac- 
complice — that a fair paper tide should pass from the accomplice 



to a third person — and from the latter to others ; a slave-holder 
would at once admit, that the last possessor of the stolen horse, 
although he may have had quiet possession for years, gained no 
title under a bill of sale and the lapse of time, because the origi- 
nal taking was unlawful. Such being the law in respect to the 
horse, why should it not be in respect to a man, especially when 
he is treated by law, as a horse 9 

Suppose the North American Indian should set up the same 
justification for holding our men and women and their offspring 
in perpetual captivity, that the Southern planter now sets up to 
hold his slaves and their offspring; and suppose the lapse of time 
and the transfer of possession from one hand to another, should 
be the same ; yet who would admit the Indian title f The slave- 
holder's title, having no better foundation, why should we hesi- 
tate to reject it ? Why should we doubt in respect to our duty 
to refuse our aid in sending back the fugitive slave to be further 
cruelly lacerated and maltreated by his merciless oppressor ? So 
far as our moral duties are involved in the question, I freely adopt 
the ethics of the learned, the philanthropic and the eloquent Dr. 
Channing, the influence of whose arguments against Slavery has 
been felt throughout our Union. Dr. Channing says in his last 
able treatise upon the subject, that " to send back the slave, is to 
treat the innocent as guilty. It is to violate a plain natural right. 
It is to enforce a criminal claim. It is to take the side of the 
strong and oppressive against the weak and poor. It is to give 
up an unoffending fellow-creature to a degrading bondage, and 
horrible laceration. The fixed universal consequence of this act 
is, the severe punishment, not of the injurious^ but of the injured 
man." Dr. C. alludes to the claim of the slave-holder as being 
*' a criminal claim." The federal constitution says, that the fu- 
gitive " shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such 
service or labor may be due." If no service or labor is due from 
the fugitive to the master from whom he has escaped, it is a le- 
gal inference, that the free States are not bound to surrender him 



up to his late master. If man cannot hold property in man, and 
if the slave-holder has no contract with the slave, then we say 
that no labor or service is due to the master ; but instead of that, 
we hold, that the fugitive has a claim, well founded in justice, 
against his late master, for his past services, the payment of 
which, inforo conscientice, ought to be decreed. 

We contend also, that under the constitution and laws of the 
free States, the fugitive is entitled to the privilege of trial by jury, 
before he shall be despoiled of his rights. 

We are aware that the refusal of the free States to deliver up 
the fugitive, may be a powerful means in extirpating Slavery. 
And shall we not rejoice in the prospect, that whenever the 
wronged slave escapes from oppression, and crosses the line di- 
viding the free from the slave States, his manacles fall from him, 
and that he stands a man erect ? We trust that the time is not 
far distant, when it may be truly affirmed of the degraded Amer- 
ican slave, as well as of the " stranger and sojourner" among us, 
that " no matter in what language his doom may have been pro- 
nounced ; no matter what complexion incompatible with free- 
dom, an Indian or an African sun may have burned upon him ; 
no matter in what disastrous battle his liberty may have been 
cloven down ; no matter with what solemnities he may have been 
devoted on the altars of Slavery ; — the first moment he touches 
the sacred soil" of the free States of the American Union, " the 
altar and the God sink together in the dust, his soul walks abroad 
in her own majesty, his body swells beyond the measure of his 
chains that burst from around him, and he stands redeemed, 
regenerated and disenthralled by the irresistible genius of univer- 
sal emancipation." 

Slavery has been abolished in thirteen States of our Union. 
In the other States, it cannot long endure the lights of knowledge, 
of philosophy, of Christianity, the power of truth and moral sua- 
sion, and the mighty influence which the civilized world is exert- 
ing for its overthrow. 



The slave-holder will ultimately be convinced, that its abolition 
will PROMOTE HIS OWN INTEREST. The Wealth of a nation con- 
sists, not in the flesh and bones of its citizens, but in its products. 
The point, upon which the argument relating to the slaveholder's 
pecuniary interest rests, seems to be generally conceded, — that 
free will produce more than servile labor, i^) 

To satisfy himself upon this point, he need only look to the 
glorious results of the emancipation of eight hundred thousand 
colored persons in the British West India Islands. 

Mr. Jefferson, at the age of seventy-seven, in the midst of 
slavery, thoroughly acquainted with the whole subject; himself 
a slave-holder, warned his countrymen, that the day was not 
distant, when they must hear and adopt the general emanci- 
pation of their slaves. *' Nothing is more certainly written," said 
he, " in the book of fate, than that these people are to be free." 
(Jefferson's Writings, vol. 1, p. 40.) The Hon. John Quincy 
Adams, commenting upon this declaration of Mr. Jefferson, adds : 
" It is written in a better volume than the book of fate ; it is 
written in the laws of Nature and of Nature's God." 

There are a variety of interesting topics connected with the 
general subject of slavery. But, Mr. President, at the present 
time, I will not long detain the meeting. The resolution on your 
table declares, that the rapid increase and extension of Slavery 
tend to undermine the foundations of virtue and morality, the 
Christian religion, and civil liberty. Such being the undoubted 
tendency, 1 lully concur in the sentiment, that the friends of 
freedom ought to be under the most fearful apprehensions. I 
will offer a few suggestions in respect to the influence, which the 
Southern system of Slavery has, and, until abolished, will con- 
tinue to have upon the liberties and instiiutions of the free States 
of the Union. 

A code of laws, adapted to a state of slavery, cannot be adapt- 
ed to a state of freedom, for the plain reason, that the two states 
are diametrically opposed to each other. Slavery tends to pro- 

2 



10 

duce an aristocracy of feeling as well as of wealth, and to pros- 
trate in the dust equal rights and privileges — thus laying the 
foundation of an Aristocratic form of government. (^J 

It leads to vice and all manner of criminal indulgencies — to a 
general degeneracy of the public morals. It degrades its victims 
to the level of savage beasts by depriving them of the means of 
moral and intellectual instruction and improvement. It converts 
the holy Sabbath into a holiday, and, in its train of immoral 
consequences, tends to undermine the foundations of virtue and 
religion. 

Under our form of government, our laws are but an emanation 
of the popular will. When the great mass of the people become 
corrupt, it is in vain to expect, that they will elect the most vir- 
tuous and enlightened citizens to office, as their law-makers. 
The public officer will generally be actuated by the same mo- 
tives, which govern the main body of his constituents. When 
the slave states shall succeed in securing a commanding majority 
in the national legislature, the free states will learn, what are the 
bitter fruits of Slavery. The specimens already afforded ought 
to be sufficient to open their eyes in respect to what the future 
may mature. The " peculiar institutions" of the South have 
already been the means of destroying the sacred right of Petition ; 
a right given by Nature, the abridgement of which the Constitu- 
tion prohibits. Their influence has also restrained the freedom 
of speech or debate in Congress, and attempted to shackle the 
Press by passing laws forbidding, under severe pains and penal- 
ties, the circulation of its publications through the medium of the 
public mails. The free colored citizens of the free states, by 
the mere act of crossing the boundary line of some of the slave 
states, are liable to be forcibly seized, and sold into perpetual 
bondage, in violation of one of the most sacred and important 
provisions of the Federal Constitution. 

The slave states have appealed to, and even demanded of the 
free states to enact penal laws to j)unish our citizens for exercis- 



11 

ing the liberty of speech in respect to those " peculiar institutions"! 
They have gone even further, and demanded the surrender of 
some of our free citizens of the most respectable characters, into 
the hands of Southern judicatories for trial ; or rather for execu- 
tion under the laws of " Judge Lynch" ! ! ! 

The legislature of the state of Ohio recently yielded to the 
dictation of a slave state so far as to pass a law for the delivery 
up of persons claimed as fugitive slaves by the fiat of a single 
magistrate, — taking away the privilege of trial by jury, and mak- 
ing it an offence punishable by fine and imprisonment to obstruct 
or impede the process. 

No one can doubt the fact, that the slave states have already 
used a mighty influence in respect to elections in the free states 
to secure our public officers in the support of their domestic 
institutions of involuntary servitude. Their success has been 
truly alarming. That influence has once settled, and probably 
will again determine the Presidential election. 

And that same evil influence has been the means of exciting 
ferocious mobs in the free States ; of the conflagration of the 
Pennsylvania Hall, dedicated to freedom of speech; and of shed- 
ding innocent blood. It has gone to the fearful extent of attempt- 
ing to deter members of Congress from the faithful discharge of 
their duty by threats of assassination ! ! ! (^•) 

We are even summoned to abandon cur own principles, the 
principles of civil liberty, for the purpose of perpetuating, and 
even extending one of the most odious and disgraceful systems 
of slavery, that was ever known on the face of the earth. It is 
demanded of us, that slavery shall be perpetuated in new states 
to be added to our already too widely spread Union. 

The baneful influence of slavery dismembered the Mexican 
Empire, and threatens to annex Texas to our Union for the 
detestable purpose of converting it into a great slave-mart to drain 
off our redundant slave population, and render slave-breeding a 
lucrative business ! (^-^ 

The slave-holders of the South, rioting in luxury and ease, 



12 

affecting to believe that labor degrades the man, look down with 
disdain upon the laboring classes of the North. Their slaves are 
to them, they say, what our bones, n^iuscles and sinews are to us. 
Industry is the hand-maid of virtue, and should the former be 
brought into disrepute in the free states, the latter would lose one 
of its main supports. 

Such is the constant intercourse between the South and the 
North, that we can hardly expect to escape the contamination of 
their profligate morals and evil examples. We cannot feel 
indifferent to the struggles, which the slave states are constantly 
making for the adoption of laws and commercial regulations to 
strengthen and promote their " peculiar institutions," to the injury 
of the free institutions and commercial prosperity of the Northern 
States. Nor can we feel indifferent to their threats to form a 
closer union among themselves, in order, as publicly avowed, 
" to give law to the Union ;" or, in plainer language, to fix upon 
this nation a code of laws, and commercial regulations adapted 
to their " peculiar institutions." Nor can we feel indifferent to 
their evasion of the laws of the Union prohibiting the slave-trade, 
by which, it is said, that about one hundred and fifty thousand of 
the sons of Africa are annually torn from the shores of that ill- 
fated land. 

Among the causes, which threaten a dissolution of our Union, 
no one has so prominent a rank as slavery. The slave States 
discard the self-evident truths of the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence. They contemptuously abjure the doctrine of the equal 
natural rights of man. Mr. Adams has boldly declared, before 
the public, " that the renunciation of the principles of the Decla- 
ration of Independence, is a virtual withdrawal from the Union. 
There can at least be no possible attachment to the Union enter- 
tained by those, who have renounced those principles — no com- 
munity of feeling with those who retain and adhere to them. 
The two sets of principles separate the souls of men wider than 
the distance of the poles from each other !" 

If there is any truth in our remarks, let it no longer be pro- 



13 

claimed, that the free slates, or our federal government, have 
nothing to do — no right to interfere with the domestic institutions 
of slavery, which fix an indelible stigma npon our whole nation. 
It is their right not only to erect barriers around their free institu- 
tions to guard against the daring encroachments of slavery, but 
acting in the defensive, to adopt measures for the removal of the 
pestilence, which is tainting the whole atmosphere. The hardy 
and enlightened freemen of the North are not bound to remain 
idle spectators of its ravages upon the body-politic, until the dis- 
ease shall baffle all human skill. 

We fully believe, that either our Slavery, or else our Liberty 
must, sooner or later, perish. The two antagonistical principles 
war against each other. Liberty and Slavery cannot long dwell 
together in the same country. Let us, then, buckle on our 
armor in the cause cf freedom — the cause of our country. 

But our principles teach us not to restrict our philanthropy to 
the degrees of latitude and longitude, which include our slave 
population. We would extend the blessings of liberty to all 
nations of the earth — that liberty which is man's birth-right — 
that liberty which, in perfection, can be enjoyed only in the 
social state, under well organized governments and wise laws 
impartially administered — that liberty, doubly sanctified to us by 
that desolating, sanguinary seven years' conflict, w^hich tried 
men's souls, and which was the glorious fruit of the American 
Revolution. 

" O Liberty ! expand thy vital ray, 
O'er the dark globe diffuse celestial day ! 
Thy spirit breathe, wide as creation's space 
Exalt, illume, inspire the human race I" 

What authority is that which robs our species of their liberty — 
of the equal and inahenable rights given them by their Creator f 
It can be no authority other than that of the ferocious tiger over 
his bleeding victim. Human government can exercise no legiti- 
mate authority except in protecting human rights and promoting 
the welfare and happiness of the people. This is the grand 
object of its institution. And when it becomes destructive of 



14 

these ends, the Declaration of Independence declares that " it is 
the right of the people to alter or abolish it, and to institute new 
government." 

Our government, in its form, is the most perfect, human wis- 
dom ever devised. It was an untried experiment; but its 
successful operation has been the means of diffusing more liberal 
principles among the. enlightened nations of Europe, as well as 
of furnishing models of civil polity to the South American repub- 
lics. But the literature, the philanthropy, the moral sense of all 
Christendom now accuse the citizens of the North American 
republic of insincerity and hypocricy in not adhering to the 
sacred principles, contained in the charter of their rights. And 
the stigma will rest upon them while nearly one-fifth part of our 
population are held in chains. 

But what is the reproach, which the community of civilized 
nations can cast upon them, in comparison to the displeasure of 
the Almighty ? Can we believe, that the Ruler of nations, who 
divided the sea to let the Children of Israel go free, and closed 
it upon the proud hosts of their oppressors, will not execute His 
judgment upon a people guilty of oppressions more cruel and 
aggravated, than were those of the rulers of Egypt ? Shall we 
not, then, use our humble efforts to promote the cause of justice 
and humanity — to arouse our countrymen to a sense of the dan- 
gers which hang over them, that they may set the captive free, 
and thus hope to avert the judgments of offended Heaven. 



NOTES. 



NOTE A. — FoL.4. 

Gov. PiNNEY recently delivered several eloquent discourses in this town, 
upon the Colonization subject. Many matters stated by him deserve much 
consideration. His description of the Colony at Liberia seems to settle the 
question, that the natural faculties of the colored are not inferior to those of the 
white race, and that in a free state they are equally capable of vast improvement 
in their moral, intellectual and physical condition. In that colony, of which 
he was the late Governor, he represented that there were, in addition to the 
natives, about four thousand colored people, sent from the United States, occu- 
pying dwelling-houses as commodious and elegant as those in Portsmouth, N. H. 
— that they are furnished with elegant carpets, sofas and other furniture in equal 
style — that the climate is one of the most delightful in the world, producing a 
great profusion of the choicest fruits of the tropical regions — no frosts, but per- 
petual verdure there — that they have well organized Courts of law, and an im- 
partial administration of justice — that all the civil officers are negroes, and that 
their arguments and speeches often evince a high order of talents — that Custom 
Houses are established, and not less than twenty vessels have been built by the 
colonists, and are owned by them — that the masters of foreign vessels, and 
other officers, upon their arrival at Liberia, pay due homage to the sable officers 
of this republic — that there are 18 churches, 800 professors of religion, and 30 
learned colored preachers in the nine settlements or villages, and that many 
black missionaries go out to christianize the native Africans, But he admitted 
that among the colonists, especially the white missionaries, there has been, in 
becoming acclimated, a considerable loss of life. There is no intemperance. 
Here, then, is a moral and intelligent, industrious and property-holding colored 
population, having become so in consequence of enjoying freedom. What a 
comment is this, upon the Southern institutions, which sink the neo-ro race to 
the lowest degradation ! Gov. Pinney treats Colonization as a measure prepar- 
atory to the total abolition of Slavery, and of the latter, he, with all coloniza- 
tionists, professes to be an advocate. But his plan goes no further than to 
reduce the number of the slave below that of the white population, (perhaps for 
greater security against servile insurrection,) and to get rid of the free negroes, 
deemed to be dangerous companions of the slave. It was wholly beyond his 
power to point out any mode, by which Colonization can effect the abolition of 



16 

Slavery. The average annual increase of slaves in our Union during the last 
nine years, including their piratical importation, may be estimated at about one 
hundred thousands. Gov. P. admitted that the slave-vessels annually obtain 
about one hundred and fifty thousand slaves from Africa, but how many finally 
arrive in the United States, we have no certain accounts. Mr. Wright, of 
Maryland, estimates the number at fifteen thousand. It is said that this estimate 
is several thousands too small. Judge Story, in his learned and eloquent 
charge to the Grand Jury, in Portsmouth, in 1820, stated the fact, proved by 
the records of the British Parliament, that of the whole number of slaves taken 
from Africa, on their passage, and during "the seasoning," "about one half 
perish within two years from their first captivity" I 

Colonization, with its mightiest efforts, can have no visible effect even in 
reducing the annual increase of the slaves. As a project, therefore, for total 
abolition, it is visionary, whatever may be the motives of its advocates. It fur- 
nishes no reason or argument against the exertions of the abolitionists to promote 
the cause of universal emancipation. And the inferences from the statements 
made by Gov. Pinney, are decidedly favorable to that cause. 



NOTE B. — FoL. 9. 

When we compare the exhausted and sterile soil of the old Slave States, the 
indolence, poverty, and wretched condition of the mass of the population, with 
the well cultivated, fertile fields of the free States, and the thrift, industry, and 
prosperous, happy state of the inhabitants, we can have no doubt that the differ- 
ence is attributable to the system of slavery. The products of free will ever be 
double those of slave labor. In the free States, skill and labor receive their 
reward, and this is an incentive to exertion — the main-spring to industry. In 
the Slave States, the lash furnishes the stimulus to labor. There being in the 
latter no voluntary motive to exertion, it is now, as it was in ancient time, the 
value of the man is sunk in his degradation. 

*' Jove Jix^d it certain, that whatever day 
Makes man a slave, takes half his ivorth away J''' 
It would be an idle supposition, that the mere color of the skin produces 
either a mental or physical debility ; but the ignorance of the slave renders him 
incapable of producing the results, which the knowledge and skill combined with 
the physical energies of freemen can accomplish. The interest of our Northern 
Farmers induces them to give the highest rate of wages to the most intelligent 
active laborers, rather than the lowest rate to the most ignorant. In respect to 
the mechanical pursuits, no one doubts that skill and knowledge are more requi- 
site than muscular strength ; and applied to the agricultural pursuit, under the 
great improvements which have been introduced, they certainly are highly im- 
portant. When we consider that our most ignorant laborers will perform more 
work than the same number of slaves, we need not feel surprised at the state of 
agriculture, the mechanic arts, and the general squalid wretchedness in the 
southern portions of our Union. 



17 

Uiii\ersal emancipation, and llic diflusion of iinovvlcdgc uiuong ilie slaves, 
would, therefore, instead of reducing, increase the wealth and prosperity of the 
whole slave-holding community. It is often said that general massacre would 
follow immediate emancipation. This is idle pretence. Converting the race 
into savage brutes, and inflicting cruel punishments, more endanger the throats 
of the masters, than would that treatment, which the laws of nature and human- 
ity demand. The spirit of revenge is the natural consequence of the first mode 
of treatment, and humble gratitude of the other. It is stated, upon good author- 
ity, that in the British W. I. Islands, where the white p«pulation is only 129,- 
107, and the emancipated 793,680, and the free colored 159,393, the boon of 
freedom has been the means of diminishing the proportion of crimes, compared 
with an equal period under the apprenticeship system, as about three to one ; 
and we do not learn that a single massacre has been the consequence of eman- 
cipation. 



NOTE C— F o L. 10. 

Mr. Jefferson, in his notes on Virginia, (fol. 236 to 238,) says — "There 
must doubtless be an unhappy influence on the manners of our people produced 
by the existence of slavery among us. The whole conmierce between master 
and slave is a perpetual exercise of the most boisterous passions, the most unre- 
mitting despotism on the one part, and degrading submissions on the other. 
Our children see this and learn to imitate it." " The parent storms, the child 
looks on, catches the lineaments of wrath, puts on the same airs in the circle of 
smaller slaves, gives a loose to his worst of passions, and thus nursed, educated, 
and daily exercised in tyranny, cannot but be stamped by it with odious pecu- 
liarities. The man must be a prodigy who can retain his manners and morals 
undepraved by such circumstances." "With the morals of a people, their 
industry is also destroyed. For in a warm climate, no man will labor for him- 
self, who can make another labor for him. This is so true, that of the proprie- 
tors of slaves a very small proportion indeed are ever seen to labour. And 
can the liberties of a nation be thought secure, when we have removed their 
only firm basis, a conviction in the minds of the people, that these liberties are 
the gift of God ? That they are not to be violated but with his wrath ? Indeed 
I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just ; that his justice can- 
not sleep forever : that considering numbers, nature, and natural means only, a 
revolution of the wheel of fortune, and exchange of situation is among possible 
events : that it may become probable by supernatural inteference ! The 
Almighty has no attribute, which can take side with us in such a contest." 
" The spirit of the master is abating, that of the slave rising from the dust, his 
condition mollifying, the way I hope preparing, under the auspices of Heaven, 
for a total emancipation, and that this is disposed, in the order of events, to be 
with the consent of the masters, rather than by their extirpation." 

When Mr. Jefferson published the above remarks in 1787, the slave popula- 
tion probably did not much exceed six hundred thousands. 

3 



18 



NOTE D.— FoL. 1 1. 

The members of Congre5?s from the New-England States have generally 
been sufficiently subservient to Southern dictation ; and often hare the Southern 
interests predominated over some of the most essential interests of the free 
states. But when threats of assasination are resorted to, to destroy that inde- 
pendence of mind, freedom of debate and of action, which ought to characterize 
members of Congress ; when the Constitution expressly declares, that they 
shall "be privileged from arrest," "and for any speech or debate in 
either house, they shall not be questioned in any other place," (privileges 
granted for the security of perfect freedom of thought and and its independent 
expression in public debate) the friends of liberty in the free states ought to feel 
great cause of alarm. Such threats are a daring encroachment upon their 
rights. These privileges were designed not so much for the personal security 
of the Representatives, as for the benefit of their constituents. 

In the House of Representatives, no man ever took a more fearless and 
decided stand against the Southern system of slavery, and in defence of the 
Constitutional rights of the citizens of the free states, than has the Hon. John 
QuiNCY Adams. It is painful to state, that because his sentiments did not 
fully coincide, in certain points not essential to the success of the great cause, 
with those of the abolitionists, he has not escaped censorious remarks' But his 
open, bold and fearless denunciation of slavery in Congress, and before public 
assemblies of the people, and in the public journals, will, on the page of history, 
shed a brighter lustre upon his illustrious name. Mr. Adams professes not to 
be " an abolitionist" — i. e., he does not belong to the party, or any Society ; 
but his public addresses prove him to be a thorough going advocate of the total 
extermination of Slavery and the Slave-trade, although, on account of the state 
of public opinion, he seems to despair of its abolition during " the short remnant 
of his days." We hope that he may be agreeably disappointed in this expec- 
tation. When -he declares in his last address on the subject, that " here, in our 
country. Slavery, like a wounded rattlesnake, has turned upon her pursu- 
ers, and not only thrusts out her deadly fang in self-defence, but threatens with 
r,^.ortal venona to contaminatk us all," we need not doubt his disposi- 
tion, had he the power, to inflict the immediate death-blow upon the exemplar 
of that venomous reptile. As a statesman, Mr. Adams has not, probably, a 
superior in the world — his countVy has conferred upon him her highest honors ; 
yet such is the man, who, for attempting to defend the rights of citizens of the 
free states in opposition to slavery, during the last session of Congress almost 
daily received from slave-holders or their tools, through the medium of public 
mails, threats of assassination ! 



19 



NOTE E. — FoL. 11 



Virginia has ever held a proud and elevated rank among her sister States. 
She now feels extremely sensitive to the charge, that she has sunk into a breeder 
of slaves, for market ! The charge, being too true, is a foul stain upon the 
escutcheons of her fame. It is stated in Wm. Jay's Inquiry, fol. 203, that 
" The domestic slave trade annually relieves the State of Virginia of more than 
six thousand slaves, and yet, notwithstanding this drain, they contmue to 
increase." But it appears that the trade has been on the annual increase. — 
" Jay's View," published in 1829, fol. 79, refers to an article in " the Virginia 
Times," in 1S36, which " estimates the number of slaves exported for sale the 
" last twelve months," 31 forty thousand; each slave averaging six hundred 
dollars, and thus yielding a capital of twenty-four millionH'''' ! ! ! 



POSTSCRIPT. 

Since the preceding remarks were made, a book of 210 pages, recently pub- 
lished at New-York, by the Executive Committee of the American Anti Slavery 
Society, entitled " American Slavery as it is : testimony of a thousand witness- 
es," has come to our notice. If this book is but a tissue of falsehoods, their 
immediate exposure is in the slave-holders' power : but every main point is so 
strongly fortified by an abundance of evidence, that we suspect no attack will 
be made. Its contents greatly increase our horror and detestation of Southern 
Slavery, and tend to degrade, in the public estimation, the character of the 
unfeeling slave-holder. If true, its free circulation cannot fail to unite the free 
States against the whole system. It appears that the great body of slaves, 
those who compose the field'gangs, are compelled to work, under the lash of the 
whip, from daylight till dark ; — that they are allowed but two meals a day, their 
first between 10 and 12 o'clock, the other after their day's work ; — that their 
only allowance of food for a whole week, is but one peck of corn, with a 
little salt, or in lieu of corn, the like measure of rice ; — that in some places, 
during the potato season, they are allowed three pecks of potatoes per week, in 



20 

lieu of com, and one peck of corn per week during tlje remainder of the sea- 
son ; — in some places a salt-herring is added ; but they are allowed in general, 
no meat except at Christmas time. In cities they may often fare some better, 
being allowed the leavings of their master's table. " Vegetables form gener- 
ally no part of the slaves' allowance. The sole food of the majority is corn, 
at every meal, from day to day — from week to week. In South Carolina, 
Georgia, and Florida, the sweet potato is, to a considerable extent, substituted 
for corn during a part of the year." Under the most humane masters, there 
are doubtless exceptions to the general rule. The slave may be contented, well 
clothed and well fed on coarse fare, and enjoy that negative happiness which 
may attend the lowest state of ignorance. Their clothing is generally but two 
miserable garments, and " men and women are often seen at work in the field 
more than half naked, and children of both sexes, from infancy to ten years of 
age in companies on the plantations, in a state of perfect nudity." Their miser- 
able ten feet huts or cabins, without floors, apartments, windows, chimnies, 
chairs, tables or bedsteads, are insufficient to guard against the storms, and the 
inclemency of the weather. Their whole bedding is a blanket, the cold ground 
their bed ! Cruel as is this mode of treatment, it bears no comparison to the 
cruelties inflicted upon the bodies of the poor slaves, both male and female. 
For their frequent attempts to escape, they are often shot down. This sudden 
termination of their misery is but tender mercy in comparison to the bloody 
stripes, the tortures, the wounding, maiming, and long agonizing, heart-rending 
sufferings (often terminating in death) which they are compelled, bound in 
cords, to endure. The recital of their cruel lacerations makes our blood freeze 
in the veins. Language is inadequate to describe their sufferings. These 
almost baffle credulity itself. " Happy, contented, and well fed" as our North- 
ern pro-slavery advocates represent them to be, yet to prevent their escape, 
slave-drivers, well armed, guard them by day, and patrols and blood-hounds 
by night. Horrid is their punishment, when recaptured, after flight ! Their 
blood is upon us of the free states, as well as the slave-holder. It cries 
from the ground, and ascends up to the throne of the Almighty, invoking his 
decree of condemnation upon the whole nation. The physical, if not the 
moral energies of the free states are sufficient to put an end to this crying sin. 
The power of the Federal government, now abused by upholding^ may consti- 
tutionally, lawfully and justly, in various ways, be exerted in demolishing this 
whole system of Slavery. 



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